'Build' Madness.

[ThirdWizard]

You don't think that they're going to be feats that allow you to use the applicable skill for something extra? As an example, having "Trap Finding" as a feat that allowed you to use your perception (backed with maybe nature or dungeoneering where applicable) to find traps?

They've said that training skills will unlock abilities associated with those skills. So being trained in Thievery will most likely allow trapfinding. Fighters, Rangers, or other classes will probably have to spend a feat to gain Thievery as a trained skill, and thus through that feat they'll have access to the trapfinding ability.

 

[nem z]

I've got a sneaking suspicion that feats no longer exist in trees at all and will generally have no prerequisites other than tier. Instead many feats will just get a bonus if you also have another feat or two.

This might be a very good thing if it both eliminates the need to pre-plan a character but allows enough synergy to keep optimization interesting. It might be a very bad thing if the number of pseudo-trees is very small, thus acting as a market force to homogenize classes into sub-classes (or the dreaded sub-optimal).

 

[jaer]

So nobody else is at all dismayed by the note that the new rules/customization options were so daunting that even veteran players needed some build notes to help them through the creation process?

Nope, because in order to work out a build for a character, one must read through all the powers and decide what you want and how they connect. For a first level character, that shouldn't be too difficult, but it is still requires time to read. If you buy 4e and rush to your friend's house to play, picking a build is easier than reading everything and deciding what to pick (especially when it comes to feats, since there will probably be more options for those than skills).

Also, I have a friend who I have been playing with for years and he still ends up making some completely useless characters, or characters that won't be useful until 8th-10th lvl. He gets so into the concept and the idea of all of these things coming together, he doesn't look at how things are going to go at the start or how it will interact with party balance. He's a veteran player and would probably do well to look at such proffered builds.

Just because you've made and run 20 D&D characters doesn't mean you are any good at it.

 

[SSquirrel]

Besides it isn't like you're stuck w/whatever you pick. Don't you get the option to respec your character every level or 2?